Swami Vivekananda exhorted, ‘The abstract Advaita must become living—poetic—in everyday life; out of hopelessly intricate mythology must come concrete moral forms; and out of bewildering Yogi-ism must come the most scientific and practical psychology—and all this must be put in a form so that a child may grasp it.’
Deriving inspiration from Swamiji’s words, Swami Vimurtananda, had taken efforts to weave the eternal values into wonderful stories so that anyone would be able to imbibe them and enrich their personal and social lives.
The valuable teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, and Swami Vivekananda which are most relevant to the modern age are embodied in these short stories endowed with literary grace, cultural enrichment and spiritual wisdom, inspiring our hearts and instructing our minds.
Ghazipur is a sacred town in Uttar Pradesh, India. On the bank of a beautiful and holy river is Pavahari Baba’s ashram where ‘peace’ is the reigning word. Even snakes would lay bed for the little mongoose to sleep peacefully. Such is the effect of Baba’s compassion.
Baba’s Ashram arranges religious discourses regularly. One day a devotee was narrating the life of Saint Namadeva. As the devotees were immersed in devotion with their eyes closed, only one among the crowd was mischievously looking around.
He was a thief who had the weakness to amass wealth in crooked ways. He used to rob the belongings of others and even dared to kill them if challenged.
The discourse continued. By the benign grace of his Guru, Namadeva attained the pinnacle in spirituality. One day Namadeva was sitting down for lunch, with a few hardened pieces of chapati (flattened Indian bread) kept on his plate.
A small bowl containing butter (as a side dish to the chapati) was near the plate. When he closed his eyes for prayer before taking his food, a dog from nowhere barged in and took away the chapatis from the plate.
Namadeva did not feel the loss of food. Instead he thought, ‘Alas! The dog may not be able to relish the dry chapati without butter.’ Immediately he took the butter bowl and ran behind the dog shouting, ‘Stop dear Dog God, stop dear Dog God’.
While narrating this, the speaker became emotional and the devotees were in tears.
The thief on the other hand, thought to himself suppressing his derisive laughter, ‘What a stupid fellow he was! What a mad and gullible devotees!’
He had no other option but to wait until night to carry out his plan. Therefore he remained seated amidst the devotees concealing his intention with false tears in his eyes. The speaker continued.
Namadeva, who ran after the dog, became utterly tired and gasping for breath, pleaded to the dog, ‘Won’t you stop dear? Won’t you accept this butter?’
A miracle happened. There was a total reversal. The ‘Dog’ disappeared and ‘God’ appeared! Yes! The Creator manifested there as Lord Vittala…
‘Vittala!’ exclaimed Namadeva, becoming ecstatic at that astonishing sight and unconscious to the external world as it were. Vittala, the Sustainer, held him lovingly in His arms.
Vittala said, ‘I staged this “running” episode to showcase to the world that Namdeva sees Me in all beings.’ Then Vittala disappeared.
The thief continued to wait, though he was becoming more impatient. He murmured to himself, ‘This is all nonsense.’
The devotees paid their obeisance at the entrance of the cave where Pavahari Baba lived.
Now there were only a few people left in the Ashram. The thief hid himself and waited for the right opportunity to strike. He felt a soft object beneath his feet and pushed it aside; he was about to scream, but controlled himself, for the fear of being caught. The object that he had pushed was nothing but a cobra; it continued to move ahead without any reaction. That was surprising indeed.
It did not bite him even when he had trampled upon it!
He had heard that even venomous creatures like cobras and scorpions casually roamed around in this ashram. He experienced it that day.
He became restless unable to bear the slow progress of time. At last, darkness engulfed. He got into action. He entered into the Ashram and hurriedly packed all the things he could lay his hands on. He rejoiced in the thought that he could feed himself for a number of days by selling them, without doing any work!
He carried the bundle on his back. He thought, ‘Thank God, no one around has seen me.’
‘Even if someone tries to catch me, I have this,’ he told himself ensuring that the knife he hid under his waist was safe. His mind hardened further. Looking around with fear, he started sneaking out of the ashram.
Suddenly at that very moment, like a soulful music in queer silence, like a ray of light in pitch darkness, like sumptuous food in hunger, there came a voice calling, ‘Chorbaba (Thief Baba).’
He was stunned. What a soothing voice! Could any voice be so sweet and loving?
‘Chorbaba, please stop!’ he heard the voice once again. He became really frightened. Did he know that it was the sweet voice of Pavahari Baba?
Usually in such circumstances he would take his knife, but on that day he took to his heels. May be the presence of the Baba who sharpens the intellect prevented him from laying his hands on the sharpened knife!
Chasing the thief who ran gasping for breath was none other than Pavahari Baba who lived on air (Pavahari = one who lived on air, i.e. no other food but air).
He ran like a devil; Baba pursued him like the wind.
He felt that he was running like a dog carrying the bundle of stolen things. He then ran faster unable to believe that Baba was able to chase him as swiftly as Namadeva was able to chase the dog which took away the chapatis from his plate.
He thought that Baba would stop chasing him if he dropped down the bundle. And so he dropped it. But Baba then chased him even faster, picking up the bundle and carrying it on his shoulders.
He wondered why Baba was still chasing him. It flashed in his mind that the ‘bundle of sins’ which he had carried had turned into a ‘bundle of prizes’ when Baba was effortlessly carrying it on his slender shoulders.
Is it a big task for a Yogi, who has conquered his own mind, to catch an ordinary thief? Suddenly Baba stood before him. The thief surrendered by raising his hands.
What happened to his life-threatening, knife-wielding, terrible hands?
On seeing the thief’s hands raised in fright, Baba folded his hands and said, ‘Chorbaba, stop. Whatever you have taken in this bag are yours already. I am sorry to have disturbed you when you took them away. Please take them now, my dear, it is all yours.’
Baba then gave him the bundle. He stood there like a mother feeding a drop of honey into the mouth of a hungry child.
Having tasted a little sweetness of real love for the first time, the thief was taken aback. Seeing the compassion of Baba, he broke down. He could not even raise his head to look at him. Baba began to caress his head. He wept and wept as his mind was slowly cleansed of all sinful thoughts.
After sometime, wiping off his tears he looked at Baba and said, ‘Baba, please forgive me.’ He again started to run.
Earlier, he had run with a sense of defeat after the attempted theft. But now he ran with a sense of realization. Did Baba’s spiritual magnetism dispel his sinful thoughts and actions? From then on, whenever he picked up anything that did not belong to him, he felt just like the dog carrying the chapatis!
He felt ashamed for his actions. ‘Would a feeling of shame bring about so much of goodness? Does right thinking make one feel so comfortable?’ he wondered.
Whenever he was alone, the sweet voice calling ‘Chorbaba’ would start ringing in his ears.
However, he would now and then be tempted to steal. Immediately the sweet voice telling ‘Stop, Chorbaba’ would control him. He would even rejoice in those words by repeatedly uttering, ‘Stop, Chorbaba, Stop’.
‘How was it that Baba was able to give away whatever he had? If he was happy even after giving his material things away, it meant that he had something more valuable within him. What was that?’ thought the perplexed thief.
One day it suddenly dawned on him. ‘It was nothing but Baba’s compassion! I knew how to steal Baba’s possession, but did not know how to steal his compassion,’ he realized and felt very miserable.
‘No. I cannot waste any more time. I have to find a way to dissolve my sins,’ he thought. He wanted to submit himself to Baba and serve him. But, he did not have the courage to do so.
He continued his life, counting his days and repeatedly thinking Baba’s compassion that had come to him as a beacon light in this ocean of transmigration.
IT was Swami Vivekananda’s passion to visit godly people wherever they were.
Swamiji as a wandering monk went to Rishikesh in the year 1888. He learnt about a monk there who was earnestly longing for God. He decided to visit him at his hut.
Both of them conversed and brought out many pearls of wisdom during the discussion. The monk noticed a photo of Sri Ramakrishna in one of the books of Swamiji.
He asked Swamiji, ‘Who is this? I have seen his photo somewhere!’
‘Maharaj, he is Sri Ramakrishna. I happen to be one of his humble disciples… Maharaj, where did you see his photo?’ asked Swamiji curiously.
The monk said, ‘I have seen his photo in Pavahari Baba’s ashram.’
The moment he heard this, Swamiji became excited. ‘What, Pavahari Baba! Do you know that great saint? ’ said Swamiji.
The entire discussion thereafter hovered only around Baba.
Swamiji finally asked, ‘Maharaj, are you aware of the story of a thief who entered Baba’s ashram and later got the divine vision that Baba was the personification of God Himself. Do you know anything about it?’
The monk replied, ‘Yes, Swamiji. He was a notorious thief.’ He then began to narrate the thief’s story as he knew it.
Swamiji listened to the story, and with tears said, ‘See, everyone has divinity within. There are innumerable ways through which great saints demonstrate this fact!’
After a brief spell of silence, Swamiji asked him, ‘Maharaj! What happened to that thief who stole at Baba’s ashram?’
The monk emotionally and calmly replied, ‘He is sitting right here in front of you, Swamiji!’
Swami Vimurtananda
31 March, 2021
Ramakrishna Math, Thanjavur